


Bittersweet

by PurpleMoon3



Series: dresden_kink fills [4]
Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: AU, Feels, Gen, Hound!Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 19:38:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9087316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleMoon3/pseuds/PurpleMoon3
Summary: Lea contemplates how winning can feel like a loss.  Harry makes no comment.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted at the kinkmeme. [Here.](http://dresden-kink.dreamwidth.org/3344.html?thread=3120400#cmt3120400)

Leanansidhe stood overlooking a field of dusty snow, watching her hounds play, and pondered. Harry wasn't the biggest of her little pack, nor the smallest, but he was her favorite. She had cherished his dam as much as a fey could love any mortal, and so kept her promise to care for and watch over Margaret's offspring. Young and bright, the taste of fire and death clinging to him, she had taken the scared, desperate, _precious_ child in hand. Potential. She remembered so much potential, and yet...  
  
Harry watched the others fight among themselves. He sat half buried beneath the falling snow, a mass of tangled darkness marring the blanket of white, and occasionally an ear flicked backward as if tracking something only he could hear. Perhaps he was. Potential. Harry could be the greatest of her hounds, the leader of her hunt, and perhaps... perhaps one day give even the Erlking a challenge. Nobel the Leanansidhe may be, but not even she had enough power to topple the Queens. Not yet. Not without reason.  
  
She curled a strand of blood red hair around her finger, and pursed her lips. The sound that emerged was sharp, high, and meant only for those in the courtyard below. The beasts froze, one with the remains of a trespasser dangling from its jaws, before whirling around and filling the air with joyous barks. Lea smiled, turning to walk down the hall and meet them, but paused as she noticed a stark absence. His voice had not joined the chorus. Rough, husky, with a baritone that could command fire's spark even in the depths of Winter, Harry's songs had been a welcome addition to her home the past several years. Glancing back out over the veranda, she noticed he hadn't moved. Half-buried and languid, tail swishing back and forth, Harry had not come to her call.  
  
She frowned. This was not the first time he had hesitated at her command. It would probably not be the last.  
  
She could not figure out why.  
  
"Harry, child." She cooed, throwing in charm that should not have been needed into the words. The others bounced around her legs, all begging for attention just as they had for power, so long ago, but she ignored them. Harry shifted in his position, eyes dark, and yawned. "My sweet, come."  
  
He rose. Tentative paws pressed into the snow, melting it in a rush of heat, and with a lowered head he cautiously approached. The others growled low, threateningly, as she scratched behind his ear and she shushed them with an icy glare. His nose touched her palm. He was her favorite, but he didn't hunt as the others did. He would chase, and he appeared to enjoy it, but he never took the killing blow. He wouldn't challenge the others to take his rightful place in the upper echelons of the hierarchy. Timid. Quiet. Unrealized potential, and no matter what she did Lea could not bring it out. She had tried, a thousand different ways, she had tried.  
  
Harry sneezed, a full body shake that sent melted snow flying from his fur, and she smiled in amusement. He blinked at her, tongue lolling out, induced happiness shining from his eyes.  
  
He was safe, and happy, and wasn't that what she promised his mother?  
  
Leanansidhe walked back inside. Her hounds -all of them- followed at her heels. The winter fey pulled her shawl closer to her body as she approached the hearth. She wondered why, after so long, she had started to notice the cold.


End file.
